Archives for August 2007

Back in May 1993, I graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park. One of my fellow graduates was Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.

I was just looking back at some old pictures of our college days, and have to wonder why Sergey’s days as a Terp are minimized in press coverage, in favor of his times at Stanford University.

We had good times back in College Park, didn’t we, Sergey?

I’d have to imagine that all the tailgates at Byrd Stadium, all-nighters in the computer lab in Hornbake, marathon sessions of Tecmo Bowl, and late nights at the Vous must have contributed in a big way to the foundation of Google, right?

Magnify.net, the video community site that’s been increasingly popular with affiliate marketers, is inviting site owners to participate in a beta test of its new advertising program, the Magnify Ad Share Platform, according to TechCrunch.

The AdShare Network gives site owners the ability to earn directly from their video channels, both from the network itself and by allowing users to deploy their own ad inventory.

The ads running on Magnify.net are “traditional” advertising that goes around the videos, as opposed to the overlay ads recently launched on YouTube.

The launch of the Magnify Ad Share Platform was also covered by NewTeeVee, where they stated that Magnify.net CEO Steve Rosenbaum created the video ad network because of a “user revolt.”

Previously, Magnify.net enabled video community owners to generate revenue with ads from Google AdSense and Revver.

I touched base with Steve Rosenbaum to ask about the revolt.

“What the reporter didn’t get was that while Wayne (Porter) did push us over the edge, a lot of what we learned at Affiliate Summit was pretty critical in our thinking as well.

What I learned in Miami was that there is a huge community of smart, engaged, advertising savvy Internet entrepreneurs who are looking for ways to add video to their offerings and make money from that traffic.

Magnify.net’s decision to open our ad network is a tip of the hat to the affiliate marketing community.”

It looks like a ruling was handed down yesterday on ValueClickâ€™s motions to dismiss. From the web site of the plaintiffâ€™s attorneys:

“On August 27, 2007, the Honorable Florence-Marie Cooper issued two orders denying, in part, ValueClickâ€™s Motions to Dismiss the Class Action Complaints. The Court held that Defendants failed to meet their burden of establishing that Plaintiffs could not proceed in the lawsuits.”

A while back I got a email from a guy claiming to be a DMOZ editor saying that I had to pay him $5,000.00 or he would have my site: shoemoney.com removed from the dmoz.

I thought nothing of it. then today I got a email from him saying it was removed and I might want to rethink not paying him. I thought I would check just for grins.

It was removed. WOW

This was followed by nearly 200 comments expressing outrage at DMOZ, as well as doubt about Jeremy’s story.

For my part, I can confirm a couple things about the whole situation. When I went into DMOZ as an editor of the affiliate marketing section to submit Jeremy’s site, I saw a notification saying not to list him:

Since I figured the post to be tongue in cheek, I added the site to the affiliate blog section of DMOZ (under the editor name of ‘clubmom’ – my DMOZ editor account was created in 2000 when I was working at ClubMom.com).

This was on March 1, 2007. Jeremy’s site was then removed from DMOZ on April 6, 2007. Yesterday, DMOZ editor Marcin Sochacki posted the notes regarding ShoeMoney.com in DMOZ on the Google Blogoscoped Forum:

clubmom2007/03/01 14:30:05 CET I think he was being snarky about the bribe thing and his blog is important in the affiliate marketing arena. [Added in Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/ Authoring/Webmaster_Resources/Affiliate_Programs/Weblogs]

motsa2007/04/06 01:34:48 CEST Snarkiness is irrelevant. Offering a bribe results in banning. Do not relist. [Deleted in Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/ Authoring/Webmaster_Resources/Affiliate_Programs/Weblogs]

As far as anybody that doesn’t believe that the site was ever listed in DMOZ, you can see it in the Wayback Machine archives.

I can’t speak to the rest of this scandalicious story, but the site was definitely in DMOZ earlier this year.

What is to be learned from all of this? For one thing, “Snarkiness is irrelevant.” The rest is TBD.

There is an article in PC World that provides a decent elementary overview of affiliate marketing, and highlights the innovative affiliate storefront solution provided by PopShops.

If you run a popular informational Web site–perhaps a blog–there are several ways to capitalize on the value of your Web visitors and develop a new source of business income. One of the most popular methods is affiliate marketing, which lets you earn money by marketing other businesses’ products and services on your Web site.

I currently use three Web hosting companies for a variety of sites I operate, and I’d say my hands down favorite for hosting blogs is LivingDot.

The reason I mention blog hosting in particular is that LivingDot, who refer to themselves as “Blog Hosting Experts,” make it supremely easy to get going with a blog.

At the time you set up an account with them (lowest plan is $10.95 a month and should be good for most blogs), they give the option to have the latest version of Movable Type or WordPress installed on your domain at no extra cost.

This alone was big to me, because I don’t like spending time installing and configuring software if I can help it.

Shortly after I moved this blog over there (thanks to a recommendation from Sam Harrelson – thanks, Sam!), I had some technical issues.

This usual brings dread to me when dealing with a vendor I haven’t used before – I’ve been programmed to expect lousy, slow service based on past experiences.

But LivingDot was fast (I submitted a ticket late on a Saturday and it was resolved early on a Sunday) and very helpful.

This is the sort of service I’ve come to expect from somebody like RackSpace on a dedicated server for exponentially more per month. But a low-cost, shared hosting account – not only was I pleasantly surprised by the quality of their technical support, I was astounded.

And it wasn’t one time thing. I’ve contact them multiple times to request upgrades to WordPress and other things – it’s always the same. Efficient responses and solutions.

Now I’ve got four blogs at LivingDot (Affiliate Tip, Affiliate Summit, Make Video, and WeViews), and if the need arises for another one, I’ll get it going there, too.

Missy Ward and Connie Berg kicked off their three day trek of 60 miles to raise money in the fight against breast cancer.

Their team, Team Affiliate Marketing, raised $16,809.52 for the walk, which began yesterday in Coon Rapids, MN and ends in Minneapolis on August 26th.

Net proceeds from the Breast Cancer 3-Days benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure, to fund breast cancer research and community outreach, as well as the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund, to provide an endowment for breast cancer initiatives.

Here’s a picture of Connie and Missy right before they set off on the walk: